e the great opportunities which await him in the Orient.

It is true that the Gobi Desert is a part of Mongolia, but only in
its western half is it a desolate waste; in the eastern section it
gradually changes into a rolling plain covered with "Gobi sage
brush" and short bunch grass. When one looks closely one sees that
the underlying soil is very fine gravel and sand.

There is little water in this region except surface ponds, which are
usually dry in summer, and caravans depend upon wells. The water in
the desert area contains some alkali but, except in a few instances,
the impregnation is so slight that it is not especially disagreeable
to the taste. Mr. Larsen told me that there is no part of the
country between Kalgan and Urga in which water cannot be found
within ten or twenty feet of the surface. I am not prepared to say
what this arid region could be made to produce. Doubtless, from the
standpoint of agriculture it would be of little importance but sheep
and goats could live upon its summer vegetation, I am sure.

It is difficult to say where the Gobi really begins or ends when
crossing it between Kalgan and Urga, for the grasslands both on the
south and north merge so imperceptibly into the arid central part
that there is no real "edge" to the desert; however, it is safe to
take Panj-kiang as the southern margin, and Turin as the northern
limit, of the Gobi. Both in the north and south the land is rich and
fertile--much like the plains of Siberia or the prairies of Kansas
and Nebraska.

Such is the eastern Gobi from June to mid-September. In the winter,
when the dried vegetation exposes the surface soil, the whole aspect
of the country is changed and then it does resemble the popular
conception of a desert. But what could be more desertlike than our
north China landscape when frost has stripped away the green
clothing of its hills and fields?

The Chinese have already demonstrated the agricultural possibilities
in the south and every year they reap a splendid harvest of oats,
wheat, millet, buckwheat and potatoes. On the grass-covered
meadowlands, both north and south of the Gobi, there are vast herds
of sheep, goats, cattle and horses, but they are only a fraction of
the numbers which the pasturage could support. The cattle and sheep
which are exported through China can be sent to Kalgan "on the
hoof," for since grass is plentiful, the animals can graze at night
and travel during the day. This very mater